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Wikihack:Style guide
Wikihack has no formal style guide as of yet, but there are a few conventions in use. The following is a list of them. Changes should be discussed on the talk page. Tone Wikihack is not just an encyclopedia of NetHack, but articles in the main namespace should be written in a largely encyclopaedic tone. That means clearly separating facts from comments, by putting strategy tips in their own section, and comments on the talk page and link building service page. Spelling and grammar should follow Americanized language rules. Article names Try to be consistent with existing articles: * Name most pages with lowercase letters, like scroll of identify, but use uppercase for proper nouns, like Amulet of Yendor. * Prefer singular to plural (i.e. Unicorn instead of Unicorns) * Redirect acronyms like YAFM to pages like Yet Another Funny Message. However, identification, scroll of identify, and spellbook of identify can be three separate pages. The first time the article name appears in the main text, it should be bolded. This includes the titles of any redirects redirecting to the article. In-game messages documented in a definition list will be bolded automatically: ; "You feel centered in your personal space." : You gained teleport control through eating a corpse, while hallucinating formats into ; "You feel centered in your personal space." : You gained teleport control through eating a corpse, while hallucinating Redirects When creating a new article, redirect variations on that name to it, to avoid someone duplicating the article under a slightly different title. For in-game messages, redirect the message (e.g. The golden haze around you disappears) to the article about the thing that caused it. If the message can have multiple causes, create a disambiguation page (e.g. Your skin feels warm for a moment). The syntax for a redirect is like this: #REDIRECT spellbook of protection See Wikia:Help:Redirect for help creating redirects. New articles Do not create empty new articles or new articles that contain nothing but the message just in hopes of seeing someone add more content to them. Add the content yourself! A " "-only page is somewhat like applying a magic marker to write a blank scroll, though the scroll be already blank. If you don't know about the subject, learn about it or ask politely at the Community Portal for someone to create the article. Capitalization Use "Luck" when referring to the in-game attribute Luck, and "luck" when talking about a favorable outcome from the RNG. In addition, "Archon," "Angel," "Aleax," and the new SLASH'EM monsters "Planetar" and "Solar", despite not being proper nouns, are always capitalized in the game, and hence should also be capitalized on this wiki. Headers The highest header level that should be used is This . Do not use =These=, they are reserved for the article main title only. In each article, there should be a brief introduction before going into specifics. This introduction should not have a header, like Introduction , because it is obvious and because when omitting it, the introduction appears before the table of contents as it is supposed to. Section names Some sections are common to many articles. Try to use one of these for the section header rather than a variant like "Messages given", "Behavior in previous versions", or "External Links". Known standard sections are: * Generation * Map(s) * Messages * Strategy * Mythology * History * Encyclopedia entry * References * External links Generation should explain where and how the thing can be found or created. The History section should be for explaining what the thing did in previous versions of NetHack. Actual history should go in Mythology (if the thing is based on real life, Origin may be a better heading). The Encyclopedia entry should give the text of the thing's entry in the NetHack encyclopedia. Categories Each new article should have at least one category assigned to it; read the category tree to find an appropriate one. Remember to update that tree if you create a new category. Tables Many of our tables are pretty tables, the prettytable class from MediaWiki:Common.css can be used like this: to make this: Colored NetHack glyphs Use the 16-color function templates for displaying individual symbols. For monsters you should usually use Template:Monsym. The symbols are padded, so they don't work for making ASCII screenshots. Yet. Item pages Put the templates Template:scroll, Template:potion, Template:ring, Template:wand, Template:spellbook, Template:weapon, Template:armor, Template:comestible, and Template:tool at the top of the appropriate item page, or Template:item for any other type of item. Each item page should also list the effects of the item, and any messages that item can generate. Tips and strategy relating to that item should go next, and if there is an entry from the NetHack encyclopedia, that can go at the bottom. Use potion of object detection, scroll of amnesia and scroll of genocide, pos software as guides. SLASH'EM Prefer "SLASH'EM" to "Slash'EM". There is no consensus on which one is "official", but we need a convention, and SLASH'EM is clearly an acronym. If a thing's behavior is slightly different in SLASH'EM, put the differences in a SLASH'EM section. If a thing is totally different, or exists only in SLASH'EM, give it its own article. Source code When writing a piece of factual information, you may wish to document it by linking to the source code like this: The vibrating square level is not eligible to leave bones files vibrating square does not leave bones. which looks like this: The vibrating square level is not eligible to leave bones files vibrating square does not leave bones. Make sure you include a tag at the bottom of the page, to create a list of footnotes: The templates and are designed for use in source code references. Annotations If you are a source diver, you can add annotations to any source file simply by putting your comments below the relevant line. Try to limit annotations to explanations of the source code; long discussions belong on the Talk page. Other useful templates should go at the bottom of every page which is based on a spoiler by Dylan O'Donnell. should go at the bottom of every disambiguation page, e.g. Fire. A disambiguation page is a list of links to articles all associated with the same title. can be used on a page to plea for someone to expand it. From time to time, some editors will look over Category:Stubs for articles to expand. The template can take an optional parameter, for example: on any page, or on Wizard of Yendor is a plea for someone to merge a page with another, or several others. You should give details of which other page you mean in the parameter: is for pages like whose title has multiple meanings, like Izchak. In many cases, a disambiguation page may be more appropriate, but where one meaning dominates the others, it deserves the page title. Also see the , and templates. can be used to link to the main article for a topic, per this section: Namespaces Anything to do with NetHack belongs in the main article space. Anything to do with Wikihack belongs in the Wikihack namespace. User pages You can create a vanity page in the main namespace if you want to, but unless you are famous or otherwise notable it would be a better idea to create a Wikihack account and put personal information on your own User page. Sign your posts When writing on articles'/users' talk-pages or on certain community pages, sign your posts with four tildes, ~~~~. That will automatically expand to your signature with timestamp, as in "ZeroOne 17:57, 15 August 2006 (UTC)". General principles * Consider consulting Wikipedia's Manual of Style on the matter; some editors think that it is pretty good. Category:Wikihack